Devising Strategies: Study of Issues in Anthropological Research as Faced by Graduate Students

Abstract

Research in anthropology is mandatory for any graduate student. It requires fieldwork in the community. This makes anthropology a vibrant and thrilling discipline. However, the graduate students in Pakistani universities are not well versed with research and particularly with fieldwork-based research in social sciences. Although the courses taught prior to fieldwork in one way or the other attempt to train the graduate students for practical fieldwork it still is not enough if a student does not put enough effort at the preparatory or synopsis stage. The advisor role of the supervisor is also very significant during this phase. This paper brings forth only five of many challenges and problems of research and fieldwork faced by Pakistani graduate students. This paper echoes the experiences of fieldwork and anthropological research by the graduate students of anthropology in Pakistan. The major challenge identified in the preparatory phase was a selection of the research topic. The rest of the challenges are of the fieldwork, starting with the choice of ‘locale’ and willingness or reluctance of interlocutors, and leading to language and translation challenges to write the accurate findings of the research and later present the research to a larger audience. Methodology as a recurrent challenge for graduate students of anthropology is a serious concern that is reported in this paper. This paper is based on the responses from 101 graduate students of anthropology at Quaid-i-Azam University, collected during 2009-2020 in the form of written assignments.